NYT Wishin' & Hopin'

When it comes to the Clinton/Obama slug fest, the New York Times doesn’t know what to write about anymore. So, they’re recycling the notion that Hillary and Obama could be good for one another.

After this bloody primary war, it ain’t gonna happen.

Imagine President Barack Obama is preparing his first State of the Union message. Would he want Vice President Hillary Rodham Clinton tut-tutting with edits or suggesting how she could write it better? Would he want to hear Second Spouse Bill Clinton wax on and on about favorite lines from his own speeches?

Alternatively, would the poll-obsessed Clintons want to wake up in the White House residence in 2009 and read about Vice President Obama’s sky-high popularity ratings, and how they make her look like his stern old lady?

For months, the Clinton and Obama campaigns have been hearing suggestions of a so-called dream ticket of Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama. Former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York has pressed the idea most aggressively — it also came up in last week’s debate — while a major Clinton supporter in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary, Gov. Edward G. Rendell, has blessed it, too.

And some uncommitted superdelegates — the party leaders and elected officials whose votes may determine the nominee — see such a unity ticket as a way to short-circuit a fight for the nomination all the way to the Democratic convention in August, and to blend the voter bases of the two candidates.

Simply stated, this is a beltway wet dream. Yet, consider how unlikely it is that these two people would actually stand together on a platform with hands clasped and raised above their heads. They’ve beaten each other up way to much now for anyone in the electorate to view the supposed unity with a straight face. Moreover, the whole “change” message would be washed away with both Clintons in the picture. For the GOP, the hypocrisy would be palatable. A gift, if you will.